How do rip currents kill so many people?
Rip currents kill people in two ways, the second of which is utterly unobvious, and most likely accounts for the majority of drownings associated with rip currents. The first way is completely straightforward, and results when someone with limited, or nonexistent swimming skills is pulled into slightly deeper water where they can no longer touch bottom, and must, perforce, swim their way out of the situation. Despite what one might think, a truly alarming number of persons who either can’t swim well, or can’t swim at all, enter the ocean every day around the world. Why this would be so is not fall under the purview of this essay, but it most certainly is so, and the statistics back it up. The ocean, on a hot summer day, thronged with crowds of laughing children and adults, exerts a powerful attraction on people, including those who should never enter it in the first place. And so they enter it, believing themselves to be safe among the group. But what most people do not realize is that
